Midnight Patrol
by Sky-Knight-Myde
Summary: While on patrol, Leon reminisces about his childhood in Hollow Bastion.


Dem: Hello! Welcome to Our first story! I'm Demyx, master of the computer! insert cackle here And might I introduce Marluxia, my partner in crime.

Mar: Hola!

Dem: Anyway! We don't own Kingdom Hearts otherwise I would do evil stuff with Leon and a certain Heartless named Chaosbringer!

Mar: Do not use my Heartless for evil!

Dem: Isn't that what they're for?

Please enjoy the story!

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The streets of the world known as Hollow Bastion were almost silent. It was almost midnight, and the stars were bright as jewels sprinkled on deep blue velvet. The moon was a few days away from full, but it still gave off enough light to see by. The pale gray stone that made up the streets was coldly serene in the cool blue radiance.

A tall, slender man walked along the empty street , his boots tapping on stone. He rested a peculiar blade on his shoulder. Part sword, part revolver, the odd weapon looked natural in his gloved hands. Several belts hung loosely on his hips over leather pants. A short jacket accented strong shoulders, and a lion-over-cross pendant hung from his neck. His hair was a deep chestnut, long enough to brush his shoulder blades and his eyes were a stormy gray. A scar ran diagonally across the bridge of his nose, the pale pearl of the indentation a contrast to his tan skin.

Leon tapped his gunblade against his shoulder. He hadn't seen any more of the specialized Heartless that Hollow Bastion played host to. The few Heartless that he had encountered had been weak, requiring only a few blows to finish them off. This, he decided, was not good. It meant that a much more powerful Heartless was in the area.

This eerie calm brought back memories. Very bad memories. This place had been his original home, when he was only eight or nine years old. When Maleficent and her Heartless had invaded, he had been young enough to get lost in the crowds fleeing from the town, and small enough to be ignored by the Heartless swarming the streets.

He was buffeted on all sides by rapidly moving people. Panicked voices beset him, too loud to be translated into coherent statements. Leon was almost frantic, his eyes wide as he tried to find his parents. His mother had lost her grip on his wrist in the crush, and he hadn't been able to get to her before she disappeared.

Screams echoed from the street in front of him. The rush of people reversed almost immediately. Someone shoved him in the back, trying to get away. Unbalanced, he pitched forward, skinning his alms and knees. He curled into a ball, shielding his head with his hands.

The sound of clanking armor heralded a sudden decrease in the number of people in the surrounding area. He glanced up, only to see inhuman creatures with no faces and glowing gold eyes dressed in plate armor running rapidly through the crowd. They seized glowing heart shapes from the fleeing people and crushed them in taloned hands. The people dropped comatose and disappeared as the hearts were crushed. Leon immediately scrambled towards the narrow alley opposite him, almost tripping as his shoes lost purchase on the street.

He stumbled through the narrow side street, fear of what was behind him keeping him going. He almost screamed whenever he thought he saw a moving shadow, and the fact that the sky was clouding over only made it harder to see where he was going.

Leon broke out onto another street, gasping with relief that it appeared empty. Relief turned to horror as another one of the creatures ran out of the shadows ran out of the shadows, coming straight for him. Terror froze him in place, casting a thick murk over his mind. He couldn't even raise his hands to defend himself.

A spear arced across his field of vision cutting open the creature and exposing... nothing inside. Only an incandescent, prism-like heart that faded away almost immediately. It seemed to burst, a cloud of blue-black exploding and coating Leon with a wash of ice-cold air.

Something grabbed his wrist and he shrieked, putting his unfrozen lungs to good use.

"Oh, stop it! I'm not gonna hurt ya!" an exasperated voice proclaimed. Leon hastily looked behind him. A tall, muscular man with short blond hair and goggles had grabbed his arm with one hand, with a spear grasped tightly in the other.

"Geez! Are kids rainnin' from the sky today?" He dragged Leon through an open door and into what looked like a hangar. A small ship sat on a landing pad. He soved Leon through a side door.

"Jist stay here. I've gotta finish preppin' the ship." He slammed the door closed.

"But... My parents?" Leon's voice sounded shrill.

"They're probably dead by now." Leon wheeled around. A boy with thick, spiky, blond hair and brilliant blue eyes was standing with his back against the wall. "Cloud?" Leon asked, incredulous. The blond nodded. Cloud's reticience was legendary among kids his age. Leon just thought it was annoying.

Leon heard a small hiccup sob. He glanced to the side. A girl about his age with red-brown hair was sitting on the floor, comforting a younger girl with short black hair. It was the younger girl who was crying, tears oozing down the sides of her face.

"Aerith? Yuffie? What are you doing here?"

"I brought them." He looked back at Cloud. "Everyone in town knows that Cid has a Gummi ship." Cloud's eyes narrowed. "Just like everyone knows what happens to a world when Heartless take over."

" What happens?" Leon asked, refusing to think about Cloud's earlier statement.

Cloud looked over at Aerith. She looked down at the crying girl in her lap and murmured, softly. "It dies."

"No." Leon took a step backward, and ran into Cid who had just come through the door. Leon whirled and lunged for the open door. Cid caught his elbow before he could get through.

"What're you doin'?" he demanded. "There's nothin' out there fer ya!"

"My parent's are out there!" Leon struggled to get away.

"Fine. If yer that dumb, the ya deserve what ya get." Cid released his arm. Leon looked up at him, and then at the door.

He only had a time to take a single step forward before Cloud brought a two-by-four that had been leaning against the wall down on the back of his head. Leon dropped like a rock.

Cloud had a smug grin on his face. "Home run, " he muttered.

Cid looked stunned. Cloud raised an eyebrow at him. "Surely you weren't about to let him go out there?"

"Oh, whatever!" Cid slammed the door shut and headed for the cockpit. Aerith looked at him like he was insane and Yuffie started giggling. Her laughter quickly turned hysterical, however, and Aerith went back to back to comforting her.

Leon started out of his memories at a loud birdlike warble. He immediately pulled his gunblade off his shoulder and into an at ready position. Cautiously, he walked around the corner a finger carefully curling around the trigger of his gunblade.

The square was empty. The moonlight cast deep shadows onto the ground. **_Shadows..._ **Leon whirled and plunged his blade into his own shadow.

The Heartless that had been hiding in the patch of blackness his body had projected leapt out. It had closed its yellow eyes so as to not give itself away and matched his shadow exactly.

Leon narrowed his eyes. This Heartless was the reason that the normal ones had disappeared. Which, unfortunately, meant that it was rather powerful.

It was an unholy merging of a human child and draconic reptile. It had the face and body of a ten year old child, dressed in loose pants and shirt that merged with its black skin. Small draconic wings sprang from its back and spiked ridges decorated its spine from neck to its barbed tail.

Its face was the worst. It had the bright, cheerful expression of a carefree child. Its eyes were glowing yellow, and interlocking onyx teeth filled its delicate mouth. There was no emblem on its chest, meaning that it was a natural born Heartless.

It was abominations like this, merging of human and animal, that made Leon's gorge rise. His task was never easy, but it was worse when his enemy wore a human face. Never the less, he raised his gunblade into a guard position.

The Heartless ceased its pacing. It moved easily on all fours, it tail mirroring its sinous progress. The Heartless tilted its head to one side, a dark mockery of hair falling into its yellow eyes. It gave a warbling cry.

Smaller shadows pulled themselves out of the pavement their jagged antennas bobbed as they converged on Leon. He growled, annoyed, and spun his gunblade, long slashes destroyed multiple Shadows at a time. His peripheral vision caught a dark blur.

He took a step backwards. Onyx teeth tore into the skin of his wrist, right above his glove. He gave a hard yank, pulling his arm out of it's mouth and letting momentum do its work. It landed on all fours and lashed around, blood oozing from its mouth.

Leon glanced at his wrist. The cuts were shallow and clean edged. This Heartless had teeth like razors. He didn't even change his grip on the gunblade. He was, thankfully, right-handed.

The Heartless ran at him on all fours. Leon twisted the blade of his sword downwards, angling so it wouldn't hit the collar bone and jar the sword.

The Heartless slid to one side and darted in, managing to hook talons into Leon's pants and piercing his boots to try and sever tendons. Leon sliced into it's shoulder, using his swing to knock it away. The Heartless hissed as liquid darkness oozed from the gash on it's upper arm.

It charged at him. Leon shifted to protect his legs. It leapt to the side again, and Leon sliced hard. Instead of coming in as it had before, it kept going, and Leon's swing unbalanced him. The Heartless hooked the barbs on it's tail around his ankle and dragged, pulling Leon's feet from under him.

As he hit the ground, Leon rolled to his left, twisted to get to his knees, and brought the gunblade that had miraculously stayed in his hands to bear. The Heartless had twisted with the flexibility of a snake and had been about to pounce on the supposedly defenseless human.

Leon's gunblade slammed through its chest through a gap in the ribcage. A surprised look came to its face as it saw the sword in its chest.

"See ya." Leon twisted the gunblade and pulled the trigger to amplify the force of the movement. The Heartless made a choking sound, and disappeared in an explosion of black, realeasing the heart that it had formed around.

Leon sighed and got up. He winced as the deep scratches on his arms and legs made themselves known. Fortunately, he could go home now. Whenever a boss Heartless was defeated, all other Heartless in the area would lay low for a few days. Which was good because he really didn't feel like walking anymore tonight.

Well, at least he'd be getting more sleep than most nights.

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A/N: This is Marluxia! I have several gredits to distribute. First, to my friend Demyx, who posted this for me. Second, to my friends Karesu and Roxy, who got me onto fanfiction, and who inspire me daily. They are also some of the wierdest people I know. Love ya. Third, to Squenix, who gave to us the awesome Kingdom Hearts. Smiles!

This is my first fanfic, so please be nice. I luffles the reviewers, so give me some people to love! Flames are used to light my candles.

Flowers are badass to, dammit!

-Marly

And I want to thank Marluxia for writing this and thinking up the title! It is nice to have a non-yaoi story once in awhile. And since it has a Heartless, it is great!

Demyx


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